The present invention relates to a utility transport tractor that combines with an agricultural tractor the capability to transport materials and in particular to a stand for supporting a removable cargo box and method for removing and remounting the cargo box.
Agricultural tractors are designed primarily to supply power to agricultural implements and to produce a continuous draft force in the direction of travel to enable soil engaging implements to perform their intended functions. Agricultural tractors must be designed with sufficient downward force acting on the drive wheels to produce the desired draft force. Often this results in a vehicle having drive wheels that are larger than the non-drive wheels to accommodate the large downward force on the drive wheels. Agricultural tractors differ from cargo carrying vehicles such as trucks in that trucks do not need to produce a continuous draft load. A truck only needs to produce a draft load when pulling a load during periods of acceleration and deceleration.
An agricultural tractor, designed primarily to produce a draft load, has limited, if any, ability to carry cargo. A farmer must use a truck or a wagon hitched to a tractor to haul cargo. Other cargo hauling utility vehicles, such as a John Deere Gator(copyright) utility vehicle can also be used. Trucks and utility vehicles, however, have shortcomings when working with agricultural implements. They do not have the tractive ability of an agricultural tractor and are generally not equipped with a three-point hitch. In small farm operations where it is not practical to buy several pieces of equipment, it is beneficial to have a utility transport tractor that combines the typical features of an agricultural tractor with the capability to carry cargo. Past attempts to combine tractors and trucks have focused on adding a three-point hitch to a truck. These products suffer from poor performance in pulling an implement and often lack visibility typical of a tractor, especially visibility of the hitch.
The utility transport tractors have been developed that modify an agricultural tractor to add a cargo box while maintaining the typical features of an agricultural tractor that provide for the continuous draft force and include a three-point hitch for pulling an implement. At times, however, an operator will desire to operate the vehicle without the cargo box. While a cargo box can be removably mounted to the tractor, a convenient means of handling the cargo box during removal and mounting and for storage of the cargo box after removal is still needed.
The present invention provides a cargo box stand to mount the cargo box on when removing the cargo box from the tractor and a method for using the stand. The stand consists of separate left and right legs that are left and right mirror images of one another. Each leg includes a support member having a base to hold the support member in an upright position. A cargo box attachment member is pivotally mounted to the support member for rotation about a pivot and is adapted to attach to the cargo box. A vehicle attachment member is also mounted to the support member and is adapted to be attached to the vehicle, in this case a tractor, to hold the leg in place relative to the tractor while removing and remounting the cargo box. A latch holds the cargo box attachment member in a fixed rotational position relative to the support member.
Removal of the cargo box begins by first attaching the legs to the respective left and right frame rails of the cargo box by the cargo box attachment members and subsequently attaching the legs to the tractor frame by the vehicle attachment members respectively. The cargo box is then detached from the tractor frame at the cargo box pivot point afterwhich the box is raised to a tilted position by using the lift cylinders normally used for raising the cargo box. When the pivot box reaches an inclined position necessary to clear various components on the tractor, the legs lock the box attachment member to the support member with the box in the inclined position. The lift cylinders are subsequently uncoupled from the cargo box and the vehicle attachment member is uncoupled from the tractor. At this point, the cargo box is supported solely on the legs and the tractor can be moved forward away from the cargo box. The cargo box is later remounted to the tractor by reversing the above steps.